by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
If the popularity of garage sales and flea markets has taught us anything, it’s that what one person considers utterly useless may be quite valuable to another person.
The Fleet Management Division of the City of Jacksonville has implemented a plan that takes that concept a step further. The division is going to take a product that has been considered garbage but can actually be recycled and convert it into economical, clean fuel for the City’s fleet of diesel-powered vehicles and equipment.
Tuesday night City Council approved a resolution to collect waste vegetable oil (WVO) from Naval Station Mayport’s dining halls and ships. The WVO will be transported to the Fleet Management Division’s facility on Commonwealth Avenue where, through a fairly simple chemical process, it will become pure biodiesel, also known as B-100.
One part B-100 is combined with four parts low-sulfur petroleum diesel fuel to produce a mixture called B-20 that will work in a diesel engine and costs less than pure petroleum diesel.
According to studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy, biodiesel blends can be used in any compression-ignition engine that is designed to operate on diesel fuel including cars, trucks, tractors, boats and electrical generators. In addition to replacing imported petroleum, biodiesel blends reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases. Biodiesel also has superior lubricity, which reduces wear and tear on the engine and can increase the life of engine components. Biodiesel is also a mild solvent and has been shown to clean fuel systems.
Last week Sam Houston, chief of the Fleet Management Division, told the Council’s Transportation, Energy, Utilities and Safety committee that the City has been purchasing pure biodiesel and blending it with conventional fuel. He said the City has been using B-20 for more than five years with excellent results.
The division has been producing small batches of biofuel out of WVO by collecting used frying oil from one Hooters restaurant.
“We have been collecting about 200 gallons a week and Hooters uses very good vegetable oil,” said Houston, who added it is hoped the oil will be collected from all the Hooters locations in the county by next year.
WVO will also be collected from other area restaurants and Houston said one day residents may be able to contribute to the recycling effort at collection points at apartment and condominium complexes in order to reduce the amount of used vegetable oil going into the sewer system.
St. Johns County has been making its own biodiesel for the past year. According to Fleet Manager Mike Grace, what started as a pilot program to produce about 50 gallons of biodiesel a day with WVO from food-service facilities at Naval Air Station Jacksonville is now being expanded with the goal of producing 1,400 gallons a week.
The Fleet division repaired a surplus truck that carried a 300-gallon tank to collect the used cooking oil for the pilot program. Now, Grace said, the County will be buying a truck with a 1,000-gallon tank.
“We should be able to make 400 to 600 gallons a day. We collect the WVO from public schools, golf courses and local restaurants. We can get all we need,” he said.
Grace also said it costs St. Johns County less than $2 a gallon (far below the cost of petroleum diesel) to convert the WVO into B-100 and when the goal of 1,400 gallons a week is met, every vehicle with a diesel engine in the County’s inventory will be running on the B-20 blend.
“It’s working for us. I can’t think of anything that’s wrong with it. It’s so simple you wonder why we haven’t been doing it for years.”
The only thing Grace could think of that was even remotely negative about his department’s experience with biodiesel was a phone call he got one day from Tallahassee.
“The Department of Revenue called to tell us we had to pay road tax on the biofuel we are producing,” he said.